Monday, 24 November 2014

I have recently returned from a workshop in Pt.Fairy with Ev Hales as tutor.What a wonderful week it was.I left Adelaide after picking up a friend and we drove through to our destination with a quick stop at Tailem Bend for coffee then another at Naracoorte for lunch.I used my recent birthday present,a TomTom which directed us on a quick and direct route .We arrived much earlier than we predicted

Another two Adelaide friends,Lesley and Marj had travelled over two days earlier and had settled into the house we had rented for our stay...only a short distance from where Ev.based her workshop.It was good catching up with Lesley and Marj who told us about the first day of the workshop which Marg and I had missed as we had stayed in Adelaide to attend Jean Haines 'workshop at the Adelaide Art Society.What a feast of art we have had this month.Two incredible Watercolour artists within days of one another.

The first two days were taken up with attempting to paint cloudy skies,rainy skies,sunny skies with seas and waves and fore shores also.Not forgetting the black volcanic rocks either as they were in great supply around the coastline.We battled wind,sunburn and even rain at short intervals but we always had Ev's house to retreat to if needed.One day we spent in the town quickly attempting to paint or sketch people as they walked,moved,sat and so on.Ev manages to capture the movement of each person so quickly with just a couple of strokes.Some of us sat outside a coffee shop for a couple of hours ,painting,sketching and discussing movement of people passing while drinking cups of coffee.We are sure we bought lots of custom to the shop .Ev meanwhile was walking around the town looking for her students and managed to help us with our attempts on a couple of occasions.Another task that day was to find a doorway of an interesting building in the town and to paint it.I loved that exercise and even managed to put people in the doorway.It was a very hot day and Marg managed to find an ice cream shop with a queue leading out to the street.She returned with some amazing ice creams!

Another day we travelled to a garden belonging to one of the participants,Rosemary.It was incredible and Ev showed us how to do a flower painting on hot press paper.I loved this demo and the way the paint flowed.We all started our paintings of whatever flower or flowers we liked.There was such a variety .Barely had we started when the rain came down so we retreated into Rosemary's house for coffee.No time was wasted though as Ev did a crit of what we had done so far then continued with the next stage of her painting.

Most days we started at nine ,had a quick lunch then worked till around four before we met for a crit session.A shared barbecue one night at Ev's was a fun night.Back at our house we shared the cooking or bought fish and chips for tea.We tried a couple of the towns restaurants too.

The day we did splodge paintings was fun.Prior to going out we had prepared our painting surfaces with splodges of paint in two colours then we travelled to a beautiful spot with boats,water,trees and buildings where we drew onto our splodges using black pens.It was most effective.Another day we painted boats and reflections.Of course Ev demonstrated beforehand but I found this subject difficult.So difficult that I had another attempt at night from my earlier effort and photos.

I loved our day in Warrnambool as we spent the whole day at the maritime museum painting whatever we liked.

There was so much to choose from.It would be easy to spend a few days there.when the final day came we all gathered at Ev's where each of us put up our week's work and discussed it.A real learning experience!We were given so much advice and ideas to try.I am determined to succeed with hot press paper as I find it a real challenge.A week with Ev Hales as tutor is a wonderful experience.She is such a lovely lady,a fantastic teacher,so full of energy and so willing to share her knowledge and expertise.